Evilish
by mysteriousmayhemmaker
Summary: In Which Lily almost thinks like a boy and declares James Potter 'Evilish'. Basically it recounts when Lily and James became friends. Oneshot, a bit short.


**Just something I thought up when I was thinking about some of my weird word habits while I was watching tv. Enjoy.**

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Lily Evans stopped abruptly next to the fifth floor girl's restroom. "Goodbye lovely top-secret girl gossip room." She said in a completely serious voice. Then she started walking again, her best friend, Arabella Figg, trotting along beside her.

"Why do you insist on doing this every year Lily?" Arabella asked, tossing her long mane of straight black hair behind her. It was the end of sixth year and Lily was saying goodbye to the places and things that were near and dear (or not) to her heart. It was a sort of tradition.

"I like saying goodbye to the places I've spent a lot of time. I dunno why you're complaining seeing as we're headed down to dinner anyway. It's not like I deliberately set aside time to say goodbye to inanimate objects and rooms so you shouldn't really complain when I do it." Lily said defensively, shrugging her bag up higher on her shoulder.

Arabella smirked. "For someone who thinks it's normal to do this, you're defending yourself entirely too much."

Lily wrinkled her nose. "Shut up Bella." She stopped again. "Goodbye evil suit of armor that I tripped over last month."

Lily used a lot of descriptive words but for the past month or so she had mainly used one for things she did not like. Evil. Of course, it was all a matter of how you looked at the person, place, or thing in question. At other times, she used other words, but for the past month she had only used one. They continued down the hall.

"_Why_ do you do it though? It's kind of weird. I mean, that suit of armor will never know, nor will it probably care, that you say goodbye to it."

"I don't know Bella, it's just something I do. Isn't that enough for you?"

"No."

They walked a ways in silence and Lily unexpectedly stopped again. "Goodbye lovely Charms classroom, I shall miss you terribly."

Arabella rolled her eyes and they kept walking. "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a boy?" Arabella asked suddenly, completely out of the blue.

"What?" Lily asked, startled.

"You heard what I said. Have you ever imagined what it would be like if you were a boy?"

"Er, no?" Lily said tentatively, peering at her friend closely. Perhaps she was on drugs?

"Oh, don't look at me like that! Don't you think it would be a lot different if you were a boy?" Arabella asked exasperatedly.

"Well of course it would be different, wouldn't it? I would be a completely different gender." Lily said flatly as they rounded a corner. "Wait, hold up, we passed that ugly tapestry, the one with the dancing centaurs. I want to say goodbye."

"Lily! Think how differently you would be treated. I mean, for one, Potter wouldn't ask you out." Arabella said as they backtracked.

"Yeah right. I'd be so attractive he'd probably turn gay for me." Lily mumbled with a small smirk. And she said James Potter was conceited.

"James Potter? Gay? Yeah right." Arabella scoffed. They stopped in front of the tapestry depicting several ugly dancing centaurs and a troll or two. "Come on, think about it. I bet you might even be friends with him."

Lily made a weird jerking movement. "Friends? Yeah right. Goodbye ugly, evil tapestry. We will always remember your evil shortcut that isn't actually a shortcut." Lily bade farewell to the tapestry that covered the entrance to a shortcut that led you in long, seemingly endless loops to the tapestry hanging several yards down the corridor.

"Lils, you're not thinking right. If you were a guy, you'd think like a guy, therefore you'd have a point of view similar to his own. Therefore, you'd get why he likes to rile you up and ask you out all the time." Arabella reasoned as they kept walking to dinner. A small first year and his friend scampered around the corner and narrowly avoided them.

"Watch it pipsqueak!" Arabella yelled at them when she regained her balance.

"Bella, be nice!" Lily scolded. "If I was a guy, then Potter wouldn't have a love interest because Lily Evans wouldn't exist anymore because _I'd_ be Lily Evans but in guy form. So none of this would make any difference."

Arabella groaned. Lily was being stubborn. "Not if you look at it like this-"

Lily stopped, held up her hand and said, "Hold that thought. Goodbye wonderful secret passage to Astronomy."

Arabella groaned again and smacked her hand on her forehead, successfully marking it with a red spot. They kept walking, stepping onto a staircase just as it moved to another landing.

"Lily, please, you're not seeing my point." Arabella pleaded with her friend as they stepped off the staircase.

"You have a point?" Lily asked sarcastically.

"Yes, just listen. If you were a guy, you'd probably get why Potter likes to see you get mad all the time, yes?"

"Ye-es." Lily said slowly and with a frown. She could somehow feel she wouldn't like where this conversation ended up. Arabella had been trying to get her to be friends with Potter and his mates for awhile.

"And if you were a guy, you'd understand why he constantly asks you out, and chances are, you'd probably agree with his methods. Right?"

"Yes. So?"

"So don't you think that this is all a matter or point of view and opinion?"

"What?"

"The way Potter thinks! If you understood his logic, you'd understand where he comes from and chances are you wouldn't hate him anymore!" Arabella said in a rush. Lily stopped them again to say goodbye to a painting and it's occupants.

Finally Lily said, "Are you suggesting I figure out what Potter is thinking?"

"Yes!"

"Forget it." Lily said. A slight blush stained her cheeks and she moved forward. The truth was, she knew what he was thinking. Remus Lupin had explained it to her a few weeks ago when they happened to be in the library together. After his explanation, she truthfully couldn't say she hated him anymore. It was actually kind of funny

Arabella jogged to catch up. "Wait, Lils, is that a blush?" she teased, her voice slightly awed.

"Hush Bella." Lily said, her blush deepening. "Hush or I'll tell a certain Black that you fancy him."

Arabella looked appalled. "_Lily_! How could you do that! I absolutely _detest_ Regulus Black!" She said in a disgusted voice, her beautiful face contorted into an expression of deepest loathing.

Lily giggled. "Not that Black you twit. Sirius. I meant Sirius."

Arabella blushed also. "Fine, my mouth is shut. For now. But don't you think I'll forget about it."

"Deal." Lily said. "Oh, wait I have to say goodbye to…_that_ classroom."

Arabella chuckled. "Oh, be quiet Lily, you didn't do so badly on the exams. A one-hundred is better than what most people got."

"Yeah but you got one-hundred and five percent! And Black got one-hundred and _twelve_ percent. And worse yet, _Potter_ got _one-hundred and twenty-seven percent_! He beat me! And he's not even rubbed it in very much, it's terrible!" Lily lamented, definitely sounding teary. "If he can get one-hundred and twenty-seven percent, why can't I? I don't understand what went wrong."

"There, there Lily. It's not so bad. You beat him in Potions and Charms."

"Yes, but if he won't rub in his Transfiguration grade, I can't rub in mine."

"Darling, you're being immature. You normally criticize Potter for being immature. If anything he's grown up quite a lot. I think you've got a bit of catching up to do if you want to stay up to par with him." Arabella said wisely.

Lily pouted for a moment then sighed. "You're right, of course. Why is it best friends are always right?" She sighed again and stared at the Transfiguration classroom door for a long moment.

"Well." She said in a world-weary voice. "This is it. Last year will be our last at Hogwarts. And that means no more evil, evil, evil Transfigurations. Goodbye evil classroom of my doom."

"You going to say goodbye to McGonagall in that fashion to? If you do, I can almost promise you a detention." A light, playful voice said from behind them.

Lily spun around on her heel. "Potter." She greeted the boy.

"Evans." He acknowledged with a nod. "And Figg too I suppose."

"Call me by my first name please." Arabella requested tightly. She didn't like her last name.

"Sure. Arabella then, nice to see you."

"Can we help you with something?" Lily asked, the edge of blatant disregard she had developed when speaking with James was creeping into her voice.

"Er, yes." James said, a bit uncertainly. It appeared he had noticed the tone of her voice also. "I was wondering if I could speak to you alone Evans."

Arabella and Lily traded glances. "Okay." Lily said finally. Arabella drifted away from the two of them.

"I'll be at dinner." She told Lily, then left at a fast walk, determined to be out of shouting distance if the two started fighting.

Once Arabella had rounded the corner, James reached up to run his hand through his hair and stopped mid-way. Instead, he firmly tucked his hands in his pockets and squared his shoulders.

"Look, Evans, er, Lily, I wanted to apologize for that prank we pulled on you last week." James said carefully, looking at the floor.

Lily stood there, paralyzed. She was shocked. He'd never apologized in such a personal way before. Always he had done it at the urging of others and often it was loud and impersonal.

She stood there in silence for perhaps a moment too long. Finally she snapped out of it. "You know Potter, you're a very strange and complex individual. Well, no, mostly you were horrible to people and conceited and arrogant and just generally all around…evil."

James winced. He thought that perhaps he had deserved better than that, even from Lily. But then again, maybe he had deserved it. But then, maybe not.

"So you're saying I'm a horrible, evil person that's a self-centered jerk?" He asked moodily. He looked up at her and met her level gaze. "What is it with you and evil anyway? It's evil this, evil that for everything you don't like for the past few weeks."

He wouldn't say it, but he hated her telling him he was an evil type of person. He knew what she used that word for. It was for things she didn't like. And he had dreaded her calling him that because he wanted her to like him. And now that she finally had, it hurt a lot more than he thought it would.

"I wasn't finished James." Lily said quietly. His heart lifted and his expression changed to hopeful. She had even called him by his first name for the first time since he could remember.

"You _were_ evil. Now you're just…evil-ish. And Evil-ish isn't so bad. I think I like a bit of evil-ish in people." Lily said with a small smile.

James smiled back, the warmest and most honest smile she'd ever seen. "Friends then?" he asked, unable to keep the hope out of his voice.

Lily smiled back at him, just as warmly. "Absolutely. Friends."

He looked so happy, so ecstatic, he looked like he might explode with happiness. Everything she liked about him was practically glowing. His messy hair, his mischief-laden eyes, his whole face. He hugged her, long and hard.

"I'm glad we're friends now. All that fighting was getting a bit ridiculous." James said happily. "Shall we go to dinner then?"

"Yes." Lily agreed. "Hold on, I have to say goodbye to this nasty bit of work over here." She pointed to Peeves who was scratching on a chalkboard in a near-bye classroom. They entered cautiously, and stood by waiting for Peeves to notice them.

"Hello, what's this? Evans and Potty together in a classroom? Surely no good could come of this. Would you like me to summon a teacher?" Peeves asked in a sickly sweet voice.

"There's no need Peeves, I've just come to saw farewell." Lily piped up. Peeves raised his eyebrows disbelievingly.

"What?" He asked suspiciously.

"Just…goodbye till next year you horrible monster, you." Lily said fondly with a quick glance at the boy next to her.

Peeves grinned. "Horrible monster am I? If you aren't out of my classroom in five seconds, I'll show you how horrible I can be!" he threatened with an all too cheerful look on his face.

Lily and James hastily scrambled out the door, neither one wanting to receive any mischief Peeves had to throw at them.

"Horrible monster? You know he secretly loves it when students praise him like that. You'll be on the receiving end of his start-of-school-year prank next year. That's how he shows affection. But what happened to evil?" James told her.

"Yes, well, secretly I like the terrible thing. I'm sure I can survive one or two of his tricks. And I think I'm done with evil, horrible has such a nicer sound to it, don't you think?" Lily flashed him a grin and set off at a run for the Great Hall. "Last one there is a rotten egg!" she called over her shoulder, laughter twinkling in her face.

He stood there a moment, shocked, then realized he was loosing. "Hey! You cheated!" He called as he scrambled to catch up.

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**Thanks for reading, hope you liked it. Reviews are very much apprecitated.**

**Love, MMM**


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